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You will find here most of the publications of the laboratory from its creation in 2009 to now.
The Laboratory of Plasma Physics (LPP) was created in January 2009 by the fusion of the Laboratoire de Physique et Technologie des Plasmas (LPTP, CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique) with the Centre d’étude des Environnements Terrestre et Planétaires (CETP, CNRS, UVSQ, UPMC). We pursue research into all fields of plasma physics, from hot to cold plasmas and from laboratory to space plasmas, combining theoretical, simulation and experimental approaches.
Our objective is to make significant contributions to the major contemporary international projects in plasma physics: space plasma research into the sun-earth and other planetary systems, and the ITER project where magnetically confined hot plasmas will be harnessed to achieve controlled nuclear fusion. LPP is also strongly involved with plasma technologies such as plasmas for nano-technology, de-pollution, and plasma sources.
Plasma: the common scientific theme across the laboratory
Whether we are astrophysicists or laboratory physicists, we are all plasmacists. From astrophysics to nanotechnology, our working tool and our research goal is the physics of plasmas. This ionized gas, completely or partially ionized, is the fourth and least known state of matter. At the earth’s surface the plasma state rarely exists naturally (lightning is one exception), but a few hundred kilometers overhead is the ionosphere which is a plasma. On the cosmic scale, 99 % of observed matter is ionized and therefore in the plasma state. However, plasmas are also present in a variety of everyday objects, such as fluorescent and low energy lamps and plasma TVs. One should not forget that plasma physics also plays an essential role upstream of a wide range of technological applications: more than half of the processing operations used to manufacture integrated microelectronic circuits such as memory chips are carried out in plasma reactors, and plasma thrusters are considered to be the most promising technology for a manned mission to Mars. Pollution abatement can also be achieved with plasma technologies, along with high power micro-wave and X-ray generation. Finally, plasma physics is essential for the understanding of the different experimental systems implicated in thermonuclear fusion research.
LPP and the big projects within plasma physics
The LPP is in position to anticipate, prepare and influence the major international projects in plasma science. The controlled fusion by magnetic confinement project ITER is based on an international treaty between 7 partners (Europe, USA, Russia, Japan, China, Corea, India). For space exploration projects, the instruments built by the group have been selected on most of the space science missions by the space agencies (CNES, ESA, NASA, JAXA (Japan), CNSA (China), IKI (Russia)). The scientists of the group are part of the proposing teams of major programmes of Solar System Plasma Physics: they are preparing the mission BepiColombo toward Mercury, ESA cornerstone mission in collaboration with JAXA (Japan), they will build instruments for Solar Orbiter (ESA/NASA) and for the ESA programme Cosmic Vision (2015-2025), they support the missions Laplace toward Jupiter-Europa and Cross-Scale in the Earth Environment.
